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Sam Bergs lawsuit against the Canadian Hockey League has done more than polarize the countrys hockey community. It has split his family. Berg said his 71-year-old grandfather William, a retired General Motors employee, is ashamed of him for filing a landmark class action lawsuit against the Niagara IceDogs and the Ontario Hockey League last month. His grandfather, who now spends his days driving the Zamboni at the local rink in Beamsville, denies hes ashamed. He says simply he has a difference of opinion with his 18-year-old grandson. I have a different point of view, William Berg says. Thats all. I like Sam, I really like Sam. Sam Bergs case is one of three legal actions that may reshape major-junior hockey in Canada. Berg has asked an Ontario Superior Court to confirm that the 1,300-odd, mostly teenaged players in the Canadian Hockey League are employees of their teams. If they are employees, Berg argues, then they ought to be paid at least minimum wage. Some players in the CHL work more than 60 hours per week but make as little as $40 in compensation, his lawsuit alleges. Before Berg filed his lawsuit in a Toronto court, detailing his falling out with his former team, the IceDogs, Berg and his father Bill, who played 10 years in the NHL with the Islanders, Leafs, Rangers and Seantors, talked about what Sam Berg would likely be forced to deal with. There would be attacks on social media and in public. I have people giving me the finger all the time and I knew that would be the case, Sam Berg told TSN in an interview over lunch this week in a Hamilton diner. We knew this was going to be a problem for a lot of people. In Canada, hockey is more than a game. Everyone seems to know who Sidney Crosby is and who won the Stanley Cup the past five years. For someone to want to change the game, thats hard for people to accept. But without change, wed still have segregation and women wouldnt be able to vote. And we hoped some people would support us. When my dad was involved with the NHL players strike in 1994, it was a millionaires versus billionaires fight. Today, we figured that this would be seen as players just fighting for minimum wage. So we hoped we would at least get some support. Sam Berg insists his lawsuit isnt sour grapes. This is about helping all players, he says. What can you say about a system that pays some players the same as what they earned decades ago? The Bergs are a close-knit family. They live on a farm in Beamsville, Ont., with roots in the community that date back 300 years. The vineyard on their bucolic farm had a section cut out years ago to make room for a shinny rink where Sam and his sister Annie spent years learning to skate alongside their father, uncle Bob, who played in the American Hockey League, and their grandfather. We have spent a lot of time together, Sam Berg said. Family dinners, Christmases. We are close. So Berg was stunned at what happened when his grandpa found out about his lawsuit. William Berg called his son Bill, the former NHLer. He started going off to my dad about how our family would be portrayed in the community, Sam Berg said. He said people in the area would know him as the guy whose grandson ruined hockey. He was going on about how some teams are losing money and this would put them over the edge. My dad went back at him and asked when he became an expert in player contracts and the financial positions of the CHL teams and minimum-wage laws. Bill Berg, the former Maple Leaf, declined to comment on the rift within his family, other than to say he supports his sons efforts. It wasnt long before grandfather and grandson met at the Beamsville rink. The first thing he did, right away, was to talk about the finances of CHL teams and how I was going to screw up the league, said Sam Berg, whose sister Annie, a grade 11 student, recently committed to play hockey at St. Lawrence University. Then he asked me if I was planning to sue St. Lawrence University, too. My grandfather thinks this will destroy some CHL teams in small markets, but they dont look destitute to me, Sam Berg said. They have revenue sharing already. Maybe they need to do more sharing. I tried to tell my grandpa he was not banker to these teams, so he really doesnt know, but he just said to me, why would they lie? You are going to ruin them. My grandpa thinks because this is hockey, that everyone is respectable. And then, a parting shot. He said, What do I say if people ask me if its my grandson who is ruining hockey? Sam Berg said. I told him he didnt have to tell anyone I am his grandson. He didnt say anything. He just walked away. William Berg said he is worried, like many hockey fans, that if his grandsons lawsuit is successful, that some junior hockey teams will be forced to fold. I cant grasp Sams reasons for doing this, he said. I had two boys go through hockey and it was fine for them. There are teams like London and St. Catharines that could clearly afford to pay players, but what about the other teams that are borderline in Belleville or Peterborough. They are on tight budgets and if they fold, how many chances does that take away from boys. After playing with the single-A Lincoln Blades and Peak Academy, a Toronto-area high school that specializes in sports programs, Sam Berg was drafted by the United States Hockey Leagues Muskegon Lumberjacks. The OHLs IceDogs, who had drafted Berg in the 12th round of the 2012 draft, suggested he be better off in the OHL than playing in the USHL, which may have been a route to a scholarship at an NCAA team. So the IceDogs made a sweet offer, Berg says. He says they promised him that if he played a single game, he would be granted an irrevocable guaranteed four-year education scholarship. After a training camp where he scored twice in five games last season, Berg said he fell out of favour with the coaching staff after 16 games and then was demoted to the St. Catharines Falcons, a Junior B team. After a trade to the Thorold Black Hawks, Berg said he injured his shoulder in a game so badly that he would need surgery if he was going to keep playing. He decided along with his family it was time for full-time school. I called the IceDogs and said Id be needing my scholarship because I was going back to school, Berg says. They didnt say anything. They just hung up the phone on me. IceDogs owner Bill Burke declined to comment and referred questions about the lawsuit to CHL commissioner David Branch, who did not respond to an email seeking comment. IceDogs coach and general manager Marty Williamson told The Toronto Star that Bergs scholarship package was voided because he didnt report this fall to training camp. He quit, Williamson said. You cant just quit and not show up. The team is paying for one semester of Bergs courses at McMaster University this year. I guess I have a problem with it, too, because Sam wasnt there that long with the team, William Berg says. If it was Gretzky or someone who had been in the league for four years, fine. Maybe Sam got a raw deal, but he wasnt there that long. If he had put in a year or two, then maybe I would agree with it, but after five or 10 or 15 games, I think hes going out on a limb about it. But Im not ashamed of Sam, William says quietly after a long pause. This is a just a difference of opinion. A difference of opinion not only in the Berg family, but across the country. 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You can watch all the action on TSN1, TSN3, TSN4, and TSN5 beginning at 7:30pm et/4:30pm pt. Brandon Morrow Jersey . Ricciardos exclusion from the results tarnished what had been a day of celebration for local fans, who were jubilant that the Red Bull driver had apparently become the first Australian to finish on the podium at his home race. However just before midnight, stewards ruled that Ricciardos car had "exceeded consistently the maximum allowed fuel flow" and that the team refused an instruction from the races technical delegate Charlie Whiting to change the fuel-flow sensor before the race and a further request during the race to reduce the fuel flow.TAMPA, Fla. -- Brian Roberts remembered back a decade ago, when he was standing on second base and Derek Jeter approached. "He just said, "You can hit .300 in this league," Roberts recalled Monday. "To hear it from somebody like that, it kind of opened your eyes." Not that he took Jeters analysis too literally. "I dont think its just me. I think he does it to everybody," Roberts said. "But for some reason when he tells it to you, you think youre the most important person in the world." Now theyre teammates, and Roberts has a locker next to Jeters in the New York Yankees spring training clubhouse. With a void at second base following the departure of Robinson Cano, the Yankees have given the position to Roberts, a two-time All-Star who made five trips to the disabled list totalling 481 days over the past four seasons. His many maladies included a strained abdominal muscle, pneumonia, two concussions (one self-inflicted), a groin strain, hip tear and hamstring strain. "I know he hasnt played a full season in the last few years and hes obviously a guy that has some age on him, too, but my plan is to run him out there almost every day," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. Now 36, Roberts had hoped to be a Baltimore Orioles lifer, just like Brooks Robinson, Jim Palmer and Cal Ripken Jr. "Ive come to love the city, the fans," he said in February 2009 when the Orioles gave him a contract guaranteeing $48 million over five years. "This was the only place I wanted to be the rest of my career." It didnt work out that way. After hitting .283 in 2009 with 16 homers, 79 RBIs and a big league-high 56 doubles, he missed most of the following spring training with a herniated disk in his back. His first concussion was sustained on Sept. 27, 2010, when he knocked himself on the batting helmet with his bat after striking out in the ninth inning at Tampa Bay. His total of 77 games last season was his highest since the injuries began, and the switch-hitter batted .249 with eight homers and 39 RBIs. Baltimore made no effort to keep him after he hit .246 with 15 homers and 78 RBIs over the past four years. The offensive performance would have been decent but not spectacular had he compiled it over a single seeason.dddddddddddd "I dont know that you can necessarily put great words on how frustrating it is to have to sit on the sidelines and watch," Roberts said. "Ive had numerous times over the last three or four years where I wondered if, for one, Id be able to play again, and I think certainly going into last season I had no idea what the next year would hold, whether I would have a job in 2014, whether I wouldnt, whether Id want a job." New York signed him for the bargain price of $2 million, plus the chance to make $2.6 million in bonuses based on plate appearances. Hell be counted on for offence, given that the Yankees had 114 RBIs from second base last year, tops in the majors, according to STATS. "Theres going to be people that will want to look out there and say, Well, hes not Robby. And Im not going to be Robby. Im not going to try to be," Roberts said. "Im going to be Brian Roberts and, hopefully, thats good enough most days." New Yorks infield is more Take A Chance than Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance. First baseman Mark Teixeira played just 15 games last year because of a hand injury, and Jeters broken ankle limited him to 17. With Alex Rodriguez serving a season-long drug suspension, Kelly Johnson figures to platoon at third with Brendan Ryan, Eduardo Nunez and possibly Scott Sizemore. "Its not the infield that we had in 2009," Girardi said. "But we believe that theres a lot of capable players in here to put up offensive and defensive numbers, and when you look at those numbers as a whole, theyre going to be pretty good." Roberts remains in touch with his former Orioles teammates. "A lot of my closest friends in the world are there. So sure. Ive talked to them all in the last couple days. Is it weird? Is it different? Do I miss them? Yeah," he said before recounting his friendships with Jacoby Ellsbury, Jeter and Brian McCann. After Roberts spent 13 seasons in Baltimores black and orange, the Yankees pinstripes will take getting used to. Like McCann, he heard many people tell him "anybody but the Yankees" when he was a free agent. "You either love them or you hate them, right? And thats OK," he said. "Now I love them." ' ' '